Note 522 — Chapter X · FǼHÐE. WERGYLD.
Reading edition
Capital punishments are necessarily rare in early periods. Tacitus limits those of the Germans to cases of high-treason or effeminacy, two crimes which strike at the root of all society. Hence the highest punishment is payment of the wergyld: a capital thief is wergyld-þeóf. If he cannot or will not pay, he is outlawed, that is excluded from the benefits of the mutual guarantee among free men: he may be slain as a common enemy, iure belli, or reduced to slavery, which is the more usual result.